Critical Reflections on Modern Conflicts and their Implications for Political Struggles and Structures

The section will bring together contemporary themes in critical peace and conflict studies and examine how the present global context and current conflicts, especially in the Middle East, changes how we think of the past and what the future might look like. The section will include three panels. The first is titled “Political struggles over violent conflicts’ past and future”, chaired by Dr. Ofir Hadad and Professor Oren Barak of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The panel seeks to draw papers that focus on post-conflict and prolonged conflict areas. In such cases, the past and the future trouble the present, leaving lasting marks on the symbolic landscape, such as place names, monuments, commemorative sites, flags, murals, and other cultural artifacts across urban space. This panel focuses on divided cities, mostly in the Middle East, but also in other areas of the world, where communal identities are politically salient, and the symbolic landscape becomes an arena for inter-communal competition. It will discuss how political struggles surrounding violent memories and prospects in these cities influence existing power relations, as well as the broader context of conflicts and their resolutions, from a broad range of perspectives. The second panel offers a different view on the study of conflicts, with a focus on pacifism and non-violence. The panel is titled “Pacifism and Nonviolence: Insights for Peace and Conflict Studies” and is chaired by Dr. Alexandre Christoyannopoulos of Loughborough University. Pacifism and nonviolence have been gaining increasing scholarly attention in the last couple of decades, whether in research articles, special issues or now in a dedicated new journal. This panel will apply insights from the study of pacifism and nonviolence to reflect on salient themes in critical peace and conflict studies, from peacebuilding to security institutions to the justifiability of violence. Papers on the eastern Mediterranean will be particularly welcome. The third panel titled “Post-Westerndom and Southern Resilience: Theoretical Reflections on the Future of Global Governance” and chaired by Samer Alnasir of the University of Carlos III in Madrid reflects on these themes in relation to the future of global governance. The panel centres around the argument that the second decade of the 21st century has brought not only unprecedented global challenges, but also a profound crisis in Western-dominated value systems. The COVID-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine, and international response to the dramatic situation in Gaza have all revealed deep inconsistencies in the application of Western principles, revealing a supremacist and hegemonic double standard that has eroded moral authority. This panel examines the implications of this ‘crisis of values’ for global governance, particularly its impact on the Global South, which has been pressured to adopt massive Western modernity models. In line with the section’s general theme, the panel will also seek to offer a discussion of what this means for the future with a discussion around the concept of ‘ideocide’.